It was a great night at Seeding the Future- An Evening with Vandana Shiva downtown Vancouver. The sold out venue reaffirms that change is in the air!
ISF2016: Seeding the Future – An Evening with Vandana Shiva
TGC had the pleasure to attend An Evening with Vandana Shiva in Vancouver on Thursday July 14th 2016 from 7-10 pm.
The St. Andrew’s Wesley church was packed with a sold out show of 1200 people all in attendance eagerly looking forward to the words of wisdom and unique perspective of Vandana Shiva. The event was put together as part of the Indian Summer Arts Society (ISAS) which is a Vancouver-based not-for-profit secular arts organization.
This event was widely anticipated and Vandana did not disappoint, with her intimate in depth knowledge of the origins of modern day industrial agriculture which is based on the industrial military complex. She outlined the connections between some of the most deadly chemicals created by man for the eradication of life and what is being sprayed on our crops. She discussed how agent orange and DDT were used as the base for many of the modern day pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. The main point being that industrial agriculture is not sustainable. Petrochemical giants, in her view, use chemicals whose main function is to kill everything and then genetically modifying plants to be resistant to these chemicals is biological ‘insanity’ but designed to control food supplies.
One of the most interesting revelations was Vandana’s discussion on the refugee crisis connection to failed industrial agriculture in Nigeria and other African states. The massive farms used up all the natural water resources and then collapsed through drought resulting in a food crisis, which facilitated the rise of the Boko Haram.
The remainder of her talk focused on the issues facing Indian farmers and how the seed market has changed because….. ??? . Vandana says, farmers are now forced to buy seed from Monsanto which has pushed almost 800,000 farmers to suicide from debt”. Vandana’s life mission is to save seeds and educate people to the dangers of GMO and petro chemicals.
For conclusion Elizabeth May (Leader of the Green Party) moderated a short Q and A where the audience asked a few brief questions to Vandana.